http://www.voanews.com
22 December
2011
Twenty-four years after the signing of the Unity Day accord, many
question
the relevance of the holiday under the present Unity Day government
and the
resurgence of Zapu as a political force
Violet Gonda &
Sandra Nyaira | Washington
Zimbabwe on Thursday marked 24 years since
rival liberation chiefs Robert
Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo signed a unity accord
to end hostilities between the
Zanu party of then-Prime Minister Mugabe, and
the PF-Zapu of Nkomo.
But many question the relevance of Unity Day
particularly following the
formation of the power-sharing government by
Zanu-PF and the Movement for
Democratic Change, and the re-launch of
Zapu.
Government sources say December 22nd is an officially gazetted
holiday – but
without budget support. This Unity Day passed with few
speeches by senior
politicians – nothing from Mr. Mugabe or any of his
principal governing
partners.
ZANU-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo told
Voice of America his party will proceed
on Friday with rallies and
festivities to mark Unity Day. ZANU-PF says its
an important time to ensure
that the peace established by Mr. Mugabe and the
late vice president Nkomo
remains intact.
The deal marked an official end to fighting between the
two rival liberation
parties and the massacres carried out in Matabeleland
in the 1980s among
others by the North Korean-trained Fifth
Brigade.
But Information and Communications Technology Minister Nelson
Chamisa said
the Unity Day is a partisan ZANU-PF holiday which should be
amended to
become national to celebrate unity, peace and diversity across
the country.
ZAPU and the MDC formations also say the unity day is
irrelevant,
particularly in the provinces of Matebeleland and Midlands where
scars
remain from the Gukurahundi purge in which more than 20 000 civilians
died.
ZANU-PF chief parliamentary whip Joram Gumbo said what happened in
that
period was “a moment of madness” and that it is now time to forgive and
forget.
“If we want to go back into history and say we never forgive
then we cannot
have a country at all. If we want to go back to the history
of this country
we will go back to the Matabeleland and the Mashonaland
uprisings, and we
will go back to the time when whites were killing blacks -
then we will have
mass graves of people who died a long time ago,” said
Gumbo.
“In 1980 we forgave the whites and we are living together today,”
Gumbo
said.
Zapu chairman for Bulawayo retired Colonel Lazarus Ray
Ncube questioned
whose madness it was.
“It’s very good of him (Gumbo)
to say people must forgive and forget but one
question that has never been
answered was whose madness was it?”
“The conflict is even more glaring
taking into account that whoever
perpetrated violence doesn’t seem to
recognize the magnitude of that
violence up to this day," said Ncube. "And
therefore it would not make any
sense to celebrate this day when those
people who saw it all are even
suffering more today, let alone to say those
people who were killed at that
time are still lying in the open even some
bones are found in the bush.”
The ZAPU official said Unity Day used to be
an important day in the country
but has now become a day for only ‘winners
and losers’.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Nkululeko Sibanda, Senior Writer
Friday, 23
December 2011 13:15
HARARE - South African President, Jacob Zuma’s
facilitation team says it
hopes to make a breakthrough in the Zimbabwean
crisis early next year to
enable the country to hold free and fair
elections.
In a message issued exclusively to the Daily News, Lindiwe
Zulu, the
spokesperson of the facilitation team, said her team would remain
committed
to its facilitatory role.
“We would like to wish
Zimbabweans a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,”
Zulu said.
“It
is our hope that with the New Year, the situation in Zimbabwe will
improve
further and things will be better than the previous year.
“As the
facilitation team, we will remain committed to helping Zimbabwe find
solutions to its challenges and hope that together we will conquer those
challenges,” added Zulu.
The facilitation team, Zulu said, was hoping
to push the negotiations
between the three political parties in the country
to their logical
conclusion.
“We still have some issues with the
negotiation teams that we still want to
deal with.
“Once those are
pushed by the wayside, we are certain that we would have
edged closer to our
destination, which is to see the principals in Zimbabwe
meeting the
facilitator to do the final review of the situation,” she added.
Zuma was
for the better part of the year expected to visit Zimbabwe for a
meeting
with President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and
under-fire Deputy Prime Minister, Arthur Mutambara.
The meeting, it
was hoped, would see the four addressing issues pertaining
to the security
sector reforms, media and electoral reforms, among other
issues.
“We
are sure that once we deal with these outstanding issues and the
facilitation process comes to an end, of course with a free and fair
election capping it all, Zimbabweans will be able to live a life they so
desire.
“Our vision of such a life is where Zimbabweans will be
allowed and able to
choose their government in a free and fair election,
without intimidation
and the installation of fear in the
electorate.
“We also believe there should be no use of violence to cow
voters into
submission,” Zulu said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
23 December
2011
The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has lost a 13 year legal
battle
with two of its senior agents accused of fraud, because there is no
law in
the country that governs discipline within the spy
agency.
Chief administration officer, David Nyabando, and chief transport
officer
Ricky Mawere, were suspended in 1998 on allegations they defrauded
the
agency of Z$17 million meant to build ‘safe’ houses. The two were
jointly
charged with former deputy director-general Lovemore Mukandi, who
recently
returned from exile.
But this week the High Court ruled in
their favour and set aside the
suspension. In his order Justice Francis Bere
said the suspension was
unlawful and that the time it had taken to hear the
case breached Nyabando
and Mawere’s right to a fair hearing within a
reasonable time. The two are
to report back to work on the 2nd
January.
Justice Bere ruled that: “The applicants are entitled to be
reinstated in
their posts and to be paid all salary and other benefits due
to them with
effect from the date they were withheld (1998).” The judge said
the CIO
cannot hold an enquiry into the alleged acts of misconduct, before a
board
has been established at law.
The case highlights several points
that have been raised in the past about
why the CIO has built a reputation
for indiscipline and gross human rights
violations including, abductions,
torture and murder. It’s no surprise the
two MDC formations in the coalition
government have called for security
sector reforms.
Takawira
Musavengana a human rights and democracy building manager at the
Open
Society Initiative for Southern Africa, argues that: “The CIO is
probably
the only state security agency in Zimbabwe that is not established
under the
Constitution or any law.” Despite the agency being mentioned in
other laws,
absent is “a clear and explicit legislative framework,” he says.
In an
article entitled Security Sector: No Transition without
Transformation,
Musavengana says: “The CIO has gone beyond the ‘state’s
absolute obligation
to its people’ and is engaged in party political work
and involved in
violence against the very people it is supposed to be
protecting from
harm.”
In July SW Radio Africa exclusively published a list of CIO agents
working
in and outside Zimbabwe. The document was dated 2001 and listed
‘operatives’
working at the time. We serialised over 480 names
alphabetically over six
weeks. Even though some may have retired or passed
away, many are still
serving.
We followed this up in October by
exclusively publishing another list
containing countrywide addresses of over
76 offices and buildings from which
the CIO work. This 2008 list included
telephone and extension numbers. Some
of the buildings have been used to
interrogate and torture abducted
opposition activists.
The CIO is not
used to protect national security and to safeguard
Zimbabweans. Along with
the military and the police it is used by Robert
Mugabe and ZANU PF to hold
on to power, using brute force and intimidation.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
23 December
2011
There have been chaotic scenes at the Beitbridge border post in the
last few
days, due to the increased volume of human and vehicle
traffic.
Beitbridge is among the busiest border posts in the SADC region,
with
volumes rising to more than 12,000 travellers and 4,000 vehicles a day
in
the festive season. Annually this amounts to about four million people,
one
million vehicles and millions of tons of freight.
But with
traffic flows hitting record levels in recent years, because of the
ever
increasing number of Zimbabweans living in South Africa, facilities at
the
border have proved woefully inadequate.
Some of those using public
transport are complaining that they are being
asked to pay more than double
the normal fee to travel to Zimbabwe from
Johannesburg. A single trip to
Harare normally costs R300, but bus and kombi
operators have increased that
to R700 in the last few weeks.
Our Bulawayo correspondent Lionel
Saungweme told us as long as there is no
infrastructure development at the
border post, the congestions will still be
witnessed during peak seasons. He
said it takes up to five hours to transit
the border, with the delays
particularly bad during peak holiday periods.
‘The government hasn’t
learnt a thing. These things happen year in, year out
and nothing has been
done to improve or correct the situation,’ Saungweme
said.
The border
was set to receive a US$100 million facelift, which government
said would
cut delays by 75 percent. But Saungweme said Finance Minister
Tendai Biti
recently accused a South African company, contracted to expand
the border
post, of failing to complete the job.
‘Biti said government contracted a
South African Infrastructure Company to
modernise the border post, revamping
its technology and decentralising
clearing systems to curb corruption by
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority officials.
The minister said the company was
contracted to build a new port but has
spent 13 months on the job doing
nothing,’ Saungweme said.
http://www.radiovop.com
Bulawayo,
December 23 , 2011-There was chaos at most banks in Bulawayo on
Friday
morning as people jostled to withdraw money in preparation for the
Christmas
holiday.
As early as 5 am long queues of people seeking to withdraw their
cash had
formed on most banks in the city with some people from rural areas
spending
the whole night sleeping on bank pavements.
“I have been
here since Wednesday when I failed to access cash due to long
queues. Since
Thursday was a public holiday, I had to seek accommodation at
my cousin’s
house in Pumula. I did not have bus fare
to go to Binga where I am employed
as a teacher,” said Ben Siyachilaba.
Siyachilaba said he spend the whole
night on Thursday sleeping at CBZ,
corner Jayson Moyo and 8th
avenue.
Another civil servant from Fulabusi, Joel Ndlovu said he also
failed to
access his December salary and bonus on Wednesday.
“The
problem on Wednesday was that some people were paying security guards
to
jump queues. Today I hope the bank officials will address this problem
lest
I will be stuck here up to the Christmas period,” said Ndlovu.
There was
commotion at most banking halls visited by Radio VOP news crew in
the
morning. In some banks street kids were placing desperate cash seekers
in
queues for a fee.
“My brother this is also the time to make money for our
Christmas. Some
people are not prepared to sleep in queues and we are
charging them five
dollars for sleeping in the queues on their behalf,” said
a
street kid who identified himself as Chaka.
There are strong
fears that cash shortages reminiscent of the country’s
economic crisis might
resurface due to the long queues.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare - Air Zimbabwe’s passengers stranded at London's
Gatwick
International Airport are likely to spend Christmas in the cold at
one of
London's international airports.
Air Zimbabwe Acting Chief
Executive Officer, Innocent Mavhunga could not say
when the stranded
passengers would be able to fly home.
“We are hoping to bring them before
Christmas, it is not in our interest to
have them spend Christmas there,”
said Mavhunga on Thursday.
The stranded passengers have since written a
letter to the airline
management and the Minister of Transport and
Communications Nicholas Goche,
complaining about their ill
treatment.
They gave Air Zimbabwe an ultimatum to fly them home or either
re-route them
or refund their money and pay for the extra expenses that they
incurred
while waiting to be flown home.
American General Supplies
(AGS), a United States firm impounded the
aircraft, a Boeing 767 at Gatwick
last week for a long-standing debt of over
a million
dollars.
Although Air Zimbabwe is reported to have since paid the
outstanding amount,
there are reports that there are other debtors who are
lined up to
confiscate the plan to force Air Zimbabwe to pay its
debts.
The airline has not been able to refund its
passengers.
Mavhunga said if they fail to handle the situation before
Christmas
passengers will have to take other alternatives.
“It is
either they will have to go back to their homes or we route or refund
them,”
he said.
“We are still trying to sort out some logistics so the plane
comes to
Zimbabwe before Christmas,” added Mavhunga.
http://www.bulawayo24.com
by Staff reporter
2011
December 22 23:41:15
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)
Holdings has said it is owed
more than US$537 million in unpaid electricity
bills by domestic,
industrial, mining and agricultural consumers as at the
end of November.
Spokesperson Shepherd Mandizvidza said the power utility
was failing to pay
for electricity imports to supplement local generation
because of the amount
owed.
He said they were also failing to pay for
coal for thermal power stations,
pay for water for Kariba Hydro Power
Station and procure spares for
transmission and distribution infrastructure
maintenance.
"Electricity is a key driver of the socio-economic spectrum
and the failure
by some customers to heed the call to settle their
electricity bills implies
that there would be depressed generation
culminating in load shedding as the
power utility would not be adequately
resourced to meet demand," said
Mandizvidza.
"Zesa Holdings is
determined to further revive the economy through adequate
supplies of
electricity and it urges customers to meet their side of the
bargain by
settling the bills."
ZETDC, a subsidiary of Zesa dealing with the
distribution of electricity, is
encouraging customers who are facing
challenges to settle their bills to
engage it for payment plans before
disconnections are done.
Mandizvidza said many customers were not coming
forward to discuss the
payment plans.
"Some customers still remain
adamant and the power utility would have no
choice but to disconnect
supplies to encourage them to pay their bills," he
said. "To that effect,
customers are urged to co-operate with personnel of
ZETDC as they approach
their premises to discharge their mandate."
Mandizvidza said Zesa
Holdings had plans to install smart prepaid meters to
ensure that customers
paid for their consumption of electricity.
He said they were awaiting the
finalisation of relevant formalities by the
State Procurement Board (SPB) to
engage a service provider of smart prepaid
meters.
"ZETDC would be in
a position to recover the revenue that is locked with
customers as the
technology has in-built mechanism to dedicate some units
towards customer
debt, while at the same time allowing them to survive until
the bills are
cleared," said Mandizvidza.
"ZETDC is not going to write off the bills
and it is only logical that
customers heed the call to clear their debt
now."
Mandizvidza said the power utility successfully undertook an
exercise to
clean its billing system and the bills that were being generated
were
accurate.
Zesa has come under fire from customers for its
billing system which they
say is in shambles.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Business Writer/Rapaport
Friday, 23 December
2011 13:21
HARARE - With a projected diamond windfall of $600 million
in 2012 — making
diamond revenue the third — largest source of revenue —
Zimbabwe’s
government expenditure is expected to rise by 35 percent to $4
billion next
year, diamond trade watchdog Rapaport Group said.
Most
of the diamond funds are earmarked for capital investment in water,
transport and education.
The bulk of this diamond revenue, about $530
million, will come from the
state’s 51 percent stake in the Marange diamond
fields through its Zimbabwe
Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), with the
balance coming from diamond
royalties.
“If growth does slow to less
than five percent — as private sector
forecasters including the global
research and publishing unit Economist
Intelligence Unit and the IMF are
predicting — the revenue projections for
personal income tax, company profit
tax and excise look inflated,” the group
said.
It said although
experts say the diamond revenue projection is speculative —
since it depends
not just on output but costs, exchange rates and world
market prices, while
also being vulnerable to a range of factors from
rampant smuggling to
political manipulation and quality issues — Zimbabwe
pins its high hopes of
economic recovery on the diamond proceeds.
This comes after Mines
minister Obert Mpofu announced on the heels of the
Kimberley Process (KP)’s
certification of Zimbabwe’s controversial Marange
diamonds that diamond
revenue would revive the country’s economy, reeling
under a $9 billion
international debt and a $700 million budget deficit in
the current
year.
He said Zimbabwe would sustain its own economy. Mpofu’s joy could,
however,
be short-lived following fresh sanctions barring trade in Marange
diamonds
United States of America (US), the world’s largest diamond
consumer.
Recently, the US government’s Office of Foreign Assets Control
added two of
Zimbabwe’s diamond miners — Mbada Diamonds and Marange
Resources — to its
long list of people and companies under government
sanctions in spite of the
diamond miners having secured KP certification in
November.
Meanwhile, Rapaport has vowed to suspend, expel and publicly
name any player
that violates the ban.
Rapaport is the world’s
largest diamond trading network with daily diamond
listings of over 800 000
diamonds valued at $5, 6 billion and over 6 750
active trading members in 78
countries.
Lobby or advocacy group Global Witness Foundation (GWF) has
joined other
players to mount international resistance against Zimbabwe’s
diamond trade.
GWF pulled out of the KP in protest to the licensing of
Marange diamonds,
saying KP had given Zimbabwe a chance to push its blood
diamonds.
Marange Resources is a subsidiary of government-owned ZMDC
which was already
on the sanctions list while Mbada is a private company
which is in a joint
venture with the ZMDC.
Another Marange-based
diamond miner, Anjin China, is an equal partnership
between ZMDC and Anhui
Foreign Economic Construction Company Ltd of China.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn
Updated: 2011-12-23 16:31
By
Wang Ziwei and Ma Chenguang (China Daily Anhui Bureau)
Officers from
Zimbabwe's Ministry of Defense reaffirmed that the project
launched in
Zimbabwe by Anhui Provincial State Farms Group of China, has
greatly enabled
the development of local agriculture by increasing jobs,
mitigating food
shortages, promoting food supplies and cultivating
professionals.
While meeting officials from East China's Anhui
province in Zimbabwe,
Zimbabwean Minister of Defense Emmerson Mnangagwa and
other senior officers
from the ministry spoke highly of the Sino-Zimbabwean
agricultural program,
which was started in 2010, noting that the project was
a success.
The Anhui-Zimbabwean Agricultural Co-operative Program has
made great
contributions to increasing local employment, mitigating the
provisions
crisis, promoting food supplies and cultivating professionals by
leading
agricultural development in Zimbabwe, they noted while meeting Anhui
Vice-Governor Yu Xinrong, Anhui Provincial State Farms Group President Tian
Wenjun and other officials from Anhui.
"Anhui Provincial State Farms
Group is a trusted partner with great
strength," the minister
added.
Yu, Tian, Anhui Provincial Agricultural Commission Director Zhang
Huajian,
Anhui Provincial Finance Department Deputy Director Zhang Guangshou
and
Anhui Provincial Foreign Affairs Office Inspector Sha Linsen led a
delegation to Zimbabwe to discuss further cooperation on the
Anhui-Zimbabwean program. Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Xin Shunkang also
attended the meeting.
Anhui Vice-Governor Yu and Chinese Ambassador
to Zimbabwe Xin both expressed
satisfaction in the program, affirming that
Sino-Zimbabwean ties are
long-standing and well-established.
There
are extensive Sino-Zimbabwean cooperative programs useful in
exploiting
advantages for mutual benefit and development, realizing a
win-win goal and
common prosperity, Yu said.
Tian Wenjun also expressed his thanks for the
support by the Zimbabwean
Ministry of Defense and exchanged ideas on further
cooperations. The two
sides signed a letter of intent on expanding
cooperations.
[Why the involvement of the Ministry of Defence in
Agriculture? - B]
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Nkululeko Sibanda, Senior Writer
Friday, 23
December 2011 13:16
HARARE - Efforts by Zanu PF to delay the
constitution-making process were
this week exposed after it emerged that
claims of drafters’ incompetence and
political party activism were
unfounded.
It emerged yesterday that Zanu PF officials were left with an
egg on their
faces after the drafters met the constitution select committee
to discuss
the said allegations.
MDC spokesperson and party point man
at the Constitution Select Committee,
also known as Copac, Douglas Mwonzora,
told the Daily News that the meeting
absolved the three drafters, namely
former Zimbabwe High Court judge Justice
Moses Chinhengo, Priscilla Madzonga
and Brian Crozier of any wrongdoing
leaving the Zanu PF members in the
committee embarrassed.
The former ruling party had claimed earlier during
the week that there was
need for new drafters as the current crop of
drafters was championing the
MDC agenda.
This emerged after the
drafters released drafts of the first four chapters
of the draft
constitution which they handed over to Copac recently.
Zanu PF then went
into overdrive, vilifying the drafters and claimed it had
lost confidence in
the drafting team.
“The Constitution Select Committee (Copac) met
yesterday (Thursday) to
discuss a number of issues on the constitution and
also to review the drafts
that have been produced by the drafters of the
constitution,” Mwonzora
explained.
“Contrary to allegations that the
three drafters had acted outside the
mandate given to them by the select
committee, it emerged that the drafters
had indeed acted within the mandates
given to them by the select committee
and therefore the drafters were
cleared of any wrong-doing,” he added.
He said that the drafters had been
allowed by the select committee to glean
constitutional provisions from the
documents they had been supplied with by
the select committee.
The
drafters, Mwonzora said, had also been empowered by the select committee
to
read far and wide in search of other constitutional provisions applied by
other countries.
“The drafters were given the leeway to draft the
constitution based on
documents we gave them as well as research they would
make in terms of other
constitutional jurisdictions.
“Arising from
the discussions from the meeting yesterday (Thursday), the
select committee
reached an agreement that the drafters were still within
the limits that we
set out for them and that the allegations of propagating
an MDC agenda or
otherwise, were unfounded,” Mwonzora said.
What has further made the
episode dramatic is the fact that a recording of
instructions that were
given to the drafters was played at the meeting on
Thursday, further
dampening the Zanu PF’s argument of the drafters’ untoward
behaviour.
“We have seen also a video recording of the instructions
that were given to
the drafting team when it started working,” explained
Mwonzora.
“Zanu PF’s Paul Mangwana himself read out some of the
instructions and from
the drafts produced so far from what we have, we all
realise that what we
have is a product of largely the instructions we gave
to the drafters,” he
added.
Information reaching the Daily News
suggests that the drafters have been
given the green light to continue with
their work. The drafters would
commence work on 3 January next
year.
“The drafters are commencing their work on the third of January
next year.
We have agreed that they will now relocate to Nyanga where they
are going to
do their work. They have been advised to disregard any
instruction that is
given to them by any member of the select committee that
does not bear the
signature of any other two members of the
co-chairpersonship of Copac."
“This is aimed at minimising confusion and
chaos that has been created by
some members of the select committee,”
Mwonzora said.
Efforts to seek explanation from party point man,
Mangwana, on how the party
had lost confidence in the three hit a brick wall
on Monday after the Zanu
PF official denied ever claiming his party’s loss
of confidence in the
three.
Instead, Mangwana said there was no basis
for him to make such a claim as
his party had been in agreement with the
drafters’ results as well as their
appointment.
“We have no qualms
about what these people (drafters) are doing and have
done so far,” Mangwana
said.
“It is a fact that we agreed on the appointment of the three, their
terms of
reference and what they have produced so far is in line with what
we had
agreed they should focus on,” Mangwana told the Daily News.
Friday, 23 December 2011
The Movement for Democratic Change and the
Parliamentary Select Committee
completely dissociate themselves from and
completely dismisses the so called
national report published in The
Herald.
The report purports to be a Copac report yet it was not Copac
that
instructed The Herald to publish this report. The official position at
Copac
is that the national report on the constitution making process is not
yet
complete and will only be made available to the people of Zimbabwe once
it
has been completed.
The minutes to that effect were signed to by
all three co-chairpersons of
Copac, Hon Douglas Mwonzora, Hon Paul Mangwana
and Hon Edward Mkosi.
It is now imperative to advise the nation that
there is no agreement
regarding the formatting of this report. However there
is a standing
agreement that any report containing the people’s views must
have both the
quantitative and the qualitative aspects of the outreach data.
In other
words the data must contain what the people said and the
circumstances under
which they said those things.
At no point did the
Select Committee submit any report to The Herald. No
member of the
authorised Copac staff submited any report to The Herald. It
there is clear
that this report is a Zanu PF document written and submitted
by the faction
of Zanu PF that is fighting against the drafters in the
constitution making
process. It appears that this is the work of some
individuals who are
panicking about the possible outcome of the drafting
process.
The MDC
reiterates that this report is not authentic for the following
reasons.
a. There is no Select Committee resolution for the
publication of any
report. In fact the Select Committee position is that the
National Report is
not yet complete.
b. The so called report purports
to show the support of the various issues
by ascribing a percentage figure
to each issue. That way the authors wanted
to give an impression that
certain issues enjoyed the support of the people
of Zimbabwe more than
others. This is clearly fraudulent. No voting was
conducted on any issue
during outreach. No people were counted. Therefore
how can the authors of
the report purport to show figures indicating support
of a thing? How did
they arrive at those figures?
c. A Copac report would show where exactly
particular information was
obtained. This report does not do so. A Copac
report would also show the
atmosphere of each meeting or group of meetings.
For example a Copac report
would show that there was violence or that the
atmosphere was peaceful. This
report does not do so. It pretends that all
meetings, if any were peaceful.
Zimbabweans know that this is
false.
d. From the reading of the report it appears that the information
written
was obtained in the wards in Zimbabwe. This means that this report
does not
contain the views from the Diaspora, institutional submissions,
institutional submissions, people living with disabilities and views from
members of parliament.
It is common cause that Copac obtained views
from these sources besides the
public meetings. In so far as it completely
omits information from these
critical sources it can not purport to be a
Copac document.
e. This so called national report does not include the ”
list of
constitutional issues” extracted from the outreach documents by the
technical team that included, Mr. Masimirembwa and Mr. Mudenda of Zanu PF
nor does it include the list of agreed constitutional principles drawn by
the Select Committee and approved by the management committee.
f.
Fraudulently, the authors of this report want to use frequencies to show
the
popularity of an issue. Yet frequency in the Copac sense refers to the
number of meetings at which a thing was mentioned and not the number of
people who supported the issue.
The so-called report is fake. At the
last meeting of Copac it was found that
the drafters had done nothing wrong
and that they should proceed with their
work. The drafters advised us that
they were taking a Christmas break and
would resume work on the 3 rd of
January 2012.
The reports that the drafters were stopped from work are
completely false.
The drafters are not going to draft the constitution using
the national
report but are going to use the extracts of constitutional
issues given to
them by the Select Committee.
The people’s struggle
for real change: Let’s finish it!!!
–
MDC Information & Publicity
Department
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Gift Phiri, Senior Writer
Friday, 23 December
2011 13:10
HARARE - It is payback time for some Zanu PF thugs that
went on the rampage
in the violent 2008 election as they now face the
music.
Five of them who burnt a house belonging to a rival from the MDC
party as
they campaigned on behalf of President Robert Mugabe have been
asked by the
High Court to pay compensation to their victims.
The
case shows Zanu PF militants let loose in 2008 as Zanu PF launched a
violent
comeback campaign during a disputed presidential election run-off
can still
be held accountable using the courts even if they enjoy close
protection
from the political elite.
The run-off paid little for Mugabe, who was
forced by the African Union (AU)
to form a coalition with bitter rival
Morgan Tsvangirai despite all the
violent effort. Tsvangirai, having won
first round voting, boycotted the
run-off citing gross violence led by the
Zanu PF militia.
But the five, who are part of militants unleashed to
abuse Tsvangirai’s
supporters and officials, will have to pay up or face
seizure of their
properties after High Court judge Francis Bere’s
ruling.
Justice Bere recently ruled that Sapren Nyamanhindi, Bayai
Chitengo, Zvirewo
Chatsamwa, Tinei Mutape and Benson Zuze pay $8 000
compensation to Trust
Katsoke, whom they severely assaulted before burning
down his home in Mt
Darwin in the run-up to the blood-soaked 2008
presidential run-off election.
Human rights defenders say although the
figure could be minimal, the fact
that those responsible for the 2008 mayhem
can be identified in court and
held responsible could come as a warning to
youths that could be recruited
into the Zanu PF militia ahead of
elections.
Tsvangirai says he lost over 200 of his supporters and
officials to
political violence while thousands others were displaced and
forced to be
refugees in their own country.
Read more |
Is another cholera epidemic on the way? |
Thousands of girls forced out of education |
One million need food assistance |
The government knows what it costs to live in this country so they must pay us enough |
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
http://www.swradioafrica.com/Documents/ZPP231211.pdf
Zimbabwe
Peace Project - SUMMARY ON POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED HUMAN RIGHTS AND
FOOD-
RELATED VIOLATIONS
November 2011
December 23rd, 2011
Born in Zvishavane on 15th September 1946, Emmerson Mnangagwa is perhaps the one figure in Zimbabwe to inspire greater terror than President Mugabe.
Beginning a career steeped in intrigue and violence with the bombing of a Masvingo train in 1965, he sat in jail through the earlier phases of the liberation war, serving the 10-year jail sentence he received for the bombing incident. On his release and subsequent deportation to Zambia, he studied law until 1976 when he returned to Zimbabwe.
On his return, he became Special Assistant for Security for the Office of the President and member of the ZANU National Executive in 1977, although it was not until 1980 that he was to attain his most momentous, and most catastrophic, position as Minister of State for Security, head of the CIO.
Mnangagwa is widely viewed to have orchestrated much of the Gukurahundi genocide of the 1980s, in which those deemed to be ZIPRA cadres or simply ‘dissidents’ – around 20 000 people, largely Ndebele – were brutally and systematically murdered by a specially-commissioned army unit, the Fifth Brigade. Revealing his aims in masterminding the Gukurahundi campaign to have been the annihilation of Matabeleland and the Midlands, Mnangagwa claimed at the time that his “campaign against dissidents can only succeed if the infrastructure that nurtures them is destroyed” and that he had the impunity to raze “all the villages infested with dissidents”.[1]
In 1985, Mnangagwa headed the suppression of the report of the Chihambakwe Commission on the first years of the violence.[2] Earlier this year, he was met with widespread condemnation for claiming that the period of Gukurahundi was now a “closed chapter”, which the MDC of Welshman Ncube stated to be “an insult to the victims of Zanu PF’s grand plan of exterminating the Ndebele people” and which ZAPU condemned as “provocative, irresponsible and not fit to be uttered by someone who knows for sure that 20,000 innocent people lost their lives at the hands of the Fifth Brigade”.[3]
In 1989, he became Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, a position he occupied until 2000, alongside his year-long tenure as acting Minister of Finance in 1995. Defeated in the Parliamentary elections for Kwekwe Central in 2000, President Mugabe decreed that Mnangagwa become Speaker of Parliament instead. Despite another Parliamentary election defeat in the same constituency five years later, President Mugabe appointed him to the role of Minister of Rural Housing and Amenities. After winning the Chirumanzu-Zibagwe seat in the wake of the 2008 electoral violence, he ascended a year later to his current role of Minister of Defence.
As head of the Joint Operations Command, the high-powered body that directs the government’s military strategy across Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa is widely viewed to have coordinated ZANU-PF’s campaign of torture, murder, and repression that comprised the run-off election in 2008.[4] Former Amnesty International Director stated Mnangagwa to have “openly admitted the army’s involvement” in the brutal run-off election campaign.[5]
In 2010, Mnangagwa was reported, alongside Jonathan Moyo and War Veteran leader Jabulani Sibanda, to be planning “a massive genocide across all Mashonaland, Manicaland and Masvingo Provinces” which the three would unleash after the proposed constitutional referendum and upcoming elections.[6]
He has been implicated in a number of coup attempts, in which he or others have given the appearance of hoping to unseat President Mugabe and insert Mnangagwa in his place. His reputed demotion to Rural Housing and Amenities Minister in 2005 has been claimed as punishment for his implication in the infamous ‘Tsolotsho’ coup attempt of 2004. Implicated in another coup attempt in 2009, Mnangagwa reportedly had his offices raided by CIO forces as a result.[7]
Mnangagwa is also widely touted to be the richest politician in Zimbabwe, his powerful and often clandestine business network pervading much of the country and its recent history.
In 2002, Mnangagwa was named by the United Nations as a key player in the illegal exploitation of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral resources, himself taking a cut of illegal transactions facilitated by him in Zimbabwe and recommended by the UN for travel bans and financial restrictions as a result.[8] These stand alongside the targeted sanctions placed upon him by the international community as a result of his role in the last decade of repressive government in Zimbabwe.
Also named in the UN’s report was Mnangagwa’s reputedly long-standing friend, John Bredenkamp. One of Britain’s richest men, Bredenkamp is a man whose history as a collaborator with Ian Smith’s pre-liberation regime sits ill with Mnangagwa’s reputed role in the liberation struggle. Bredenkamp reportedly helped the Smith regime “to purchase arms for its war against African nationalists”, and in 2006 was forced to flee Zimbabwe to escape possible arrest by the ZANU-PF government “on allegations of flouting exchange control regulations, tax evasion and contravening the citizenship act”.[9] Moreover, Bredenkamp was reported to have been “named as the main financial backer of the infamous Tsholotso indaba” and had “thrown his support behind Mnangagwa”.[10]
Mnangagwa was also implicated in an illegal gold trading scandal in 2004, which led to ZANU-PF henchmen threatening to “shoot everyone” at the paper who had published the story and implicated Mnangagwa.[11]
In 2009, Mnangagwa was implicated in a $37 billion foreign currency scandal as a member of the board of Treger Holdings.[12] This followed a string of corruption allegations which had led to a ZANU-PF investigation in 2004 by virtue of his network of connections to Treger, Zidco (on whose board Mnangagwa sits), First Banking Corporation, and a host of other companies associated with ZANU-PF.[13] Mnangagwa’s faction of ZANU-PF reportedly owns a security company, Midsec, the premises of which were subject to a police raid in 2010 and the seizure of “an assortment of heavy guns, bombs, rifles, pistols and shotguns”.[14] Midsec forms a small part of an empire of companies reputedly seized from exiled Zimbabwean businessman, Mutumwa Mawere, by Mnangagwa in 2004.[15] Alleged to have been seized by Mnangagwa were “Zimre, the holding company of Nicoz Diamond, Fidelity Life Assurance, Fidelity Life Asset Management Company, Fidelity Securities, Fidelity Life Medical Aid Society and Zimbabwe Insurance Brokers”, alongside “AAM, Steelnet, Turnall, General Beltings, Tube and Pipe Industries, First Bank, Pigott Maskew, FSI, CFI Holdings, with its subsidiaries, Agrifoods, Victoria Foods, Dore and Pitt, Farm & City, Suncrest, Crest Breeders and Ross Breeders”.[16]
Earlier this year, Mnangagwa reportedly took over formerly bankrupt wholesaler Jaggers, with branches in Harare, Chipinge, Chitungwiza, Graniteside, Mutoko, Filabusi, and Bulawayo.[17]
Questions remain over his involvement in the Marange diamond fields, both financial and factional. Those aligned to the late Solomon Mujuru are alleged to want “to wrest control of the Marange diamonds from the faction aligned to Mnangagwa whose key figures are associated with the companies mining in the controversial area”.[18]
In May this year, Mnangagwa was also implicated in a secret deal with the Chinese government for the funding of “a Mazoe based Military College”, “kept a secret for more than two years” and with the Chinese diamond mining company, Anjin, “believed to be the benefactor” of the deal.[19]
In March of last year, Mnangagwa was faced with embarrassing allegations of extortion of white farmers in the Midlands province, “reportedly demanding as much as US$5 000 from each farmer so that Mnangagwa can “protect” them from eviction”.[20] Reputed to own numerous farms himself, Mnangagwa has continued to threaten violent eviction of white-owned commercial farms through, by his own admission, the “spilling of blood”.[21]
Despite being “taught to destroy and kill”, in 2010 Mnangagwa claimed to have “found God” and will allegedly “die in Christ” after having “found favour” in His eyes.[22]
Alongside President Mugabe alone, Emmerson Mnangagwa stands as the deepest-rooted in the atrocities of Zimbabwe’s past. He remains the critical figure in ZANU-PF’s recent power struggles and a man widely touted for future presidency – all the more so after the death of his political arch-rival, Solomon Mujuru. As the crocodile after which he is nicknamed, his part in Zimbabwe’s future, and the disastrous injuries it may inflict, lies in wait for the people who have so bravely suffered his historic attacks in the past.
[1] Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace: A Summary, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe and the Legal Resources Foundation, 1998, pp. 10-11.
[2] Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace: A Summary, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe and the Legal Resources Foundation, 1998, pp. 12.
[3] https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/jul19_2011.html#Z6
[4] http://www.theindependent.co.zw/local/20298-mnangagwa-running-zanu-pf-campaign.pdf
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/local/20405–as-mujuru-opposes-violence.html
[5] http://www.thestandard.co.zw/local/20693-mnangagwa-admitted-army-violence-says-ais-khan.html
[6] http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/6209.html
[7] http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/army26.16655.html
[8] Final report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations Security Council, 2002.
[9] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jun/09/zimbabwe.topstories3
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/quit12.14272.html
[10] http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/quit12.14272.html
[11] http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/iden.1203.html
[12] http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/mnanga4.11341.html
[13] http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/mnanga3.11637.html
[14] http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/4287.html
[15] http://www.theindependent.co.zw/local/10777.html
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/6661.html
[16] http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/4287.html
[17] http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/news/40108/mnangagwa-takes-over-jaggers.html
[18] http://www.thestandard.co.zw/local/22821-zanu-pfs-fight-over-diamonds.html
[19] http://www.zimeye.org/?p=29851
[20] http://www.thestandard.co.zw/local/23829-mnangagwa-named-in-extortion-scam.html
[21] http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/news/37370/more-blood-to-be-shed-on-farms–mnangagwa-.html
[22] http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2010-11-09-i-was-taught-to-kill-destroy-mnangagwa